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2023-08-28

Airedale Swing Bridge in Rodley, United Kingdom

The largest manually operated steel swing bridge in the UK was designed using RFEM 6!

The total length of the steel bridge is about 15 m (49 ft) and the width is about 5 m (16 ft). Pylons made of rectangular tubes with guyed tension members consisting of round steel sections are arranged on each of the bridge's longitudinal girders in order to keep the vertical deformations low. The bridge can be rotated by 90° using a manually operated rotating mechanism. When the bridge is open, the passage width for ships is about 5,5 m (18 ft).

In RFEM, the Matrix Consulting Engineers Ltd analyzed the states for bridge closed and bridge open. In the closed state, various load positions for vehicles and ship impacts have been set as actions.

In the video, you can see the mechanism of the bridge, as animation in RFEM.